To Pay One's Dues
by PPP SSC
Summary: To Clawhauser, Chief Bogo has always been there to rescue him. But when Bogo believes he has made an inexcusable mistake, it's Clawhauser who must save Bogo, from himself. Rated M for strong language, alcohol abuse, and self-destructive behavior. Bogo/Clawhauser. Thanks to PossumTool for sparking the idea.


To Pay One's Dues

In a small spiral notebook, with a glittery pink cover and bubble print on the paper, there was a page full of tally marks. Each line a reminder of acts of heroism performed by the chief of police. It was labeled "Chief Bogo, the hero". On the bottom of the page, there was an inset panel that was labeled "Chief Bogo, my hero."

By Benjamin Clawhauser's count, Chief Bogo had saved him, personally, forty-five times, over the course of seven years. Sometimes the rescues were very overt, such as knocking out a hostile grizzly bear about to strike, while others, like threatening to terminate a crowd of mammals making fun of him for various things he couldn't or shouldn't have to change, were more subtle. Either way, it was very clear from the page in the book. Chief Bogo was a hero. He was Benjamin Clawhauser's hero.

It was exactly that heroic behavior that caused Clawhauser to fall for him hard in the first place. And he almost died of happiness the day he realized once and for all that it was mutual. Bogo and Clawhauser had been dating for a while now, and Clawhauser could hardly believe it. He looked at the page of his diary, clutched it to his chest and bounced while squealing delightedly, his eyes tightly squeezed shut. But this fantasizing would have to wait. He had work to do, and his boss had signed a legally binding document to keep the personal relationship from interfering with their professional one, so, boyfriend or not, he still expected him to be working.

Clawhauser closed his notebook and hid it under his desk. Three huge tigers wearing jackets imitating thick bovine skin and jeans walked into the precinct. "Oh, hello, can I help you three?" Clawhauser asked, grinning sweetly.

The largest of the tigers looked back at him stoically. "Listen, we've got a buddy named Bud Stripely who got hauled in here on account of a gang fight, and we want you to bust him out."

"Umm… I'm afraid I can't do that, sir," Clawhauser said, "We must abide by policies and laws at all times."

"You say something, baby-doll?" one of the other tigers asked. Clawhauser gulped. 'Baby-doll' was a term used by Great Cats when they were intentionally intimidating the smaller felines. A tiger who called him that was not going to treat him kindly. Clawhauser pressed the button on the intercom.

"Uh, Chief? I have a huge problem…" he said. There was no reply. Unfortunately, Bogo was currently in the bathroom and didn't have access to his office intercom. Clawhauser desperately pulled out his cell to text Bogo, "Help" but the tiger knocked it out of his paw before he could add anything more to the text.

"What's the matter, baby-doll?" asked the lead tiger, "Are you afraid? Let him out or you'll regret it."

Clawhauser covered his face and cowered. All three tigers tried to block his exit. Clawhauser looked at one of them and hissed. The tigers laughed. "What a pathetic attempt at a roar," one said. Each tiger managed to slash Clawhauser in one place or another before another officer walked in and managed to subdue them.

Bogo was washing his hooves when he suddenly noticed an odd vibration on the side of his hip. He realized it was his phone, and he checked to see a missed spam call, along with the text message from Clawhauser three minutes ago that read simply, "Help". His eyes widened and he ran down to the lobby, almost accidentally stomping over Officer Wilde who shrugged in annoyance, wondering what the problem was.

Bogo reached Clawhauser's desk and gasped audibly when he saw his state. "Oh, my god, you're injured!" he shouted.

"It's only a little scratch," Clawhauser said.

"That is not a little scratch!" Bogo said, "You're bleeding!"

"I'm fine," Clawhauser said.

"No, no, no, no, no," Bogo said, "You're not fine. You're injured. And you got hurt because I was too busy to notice that you called for help."

"So you didn't get the memo right away. It happens," Clawhauser said. "I'm still alive, I'm conscious, and I don't have brain damage… at least, I don't think I have brain damage."

"No," Bogo said, shaking his head solemnly. "A good cop's job is to serve and protect. The city. I can't even protect the one who means more to me than anyone else…"

"Chief Bogo, I…" Clawhauser said.

"No, just call me Bogo," he responded. "I don't deserve the name 'Chief'. I'm dishonoring the former wearer of the name just by using it."

"Ch—Bogo, I love you," Clawhauser said.

"I know you do," Bogo said, sighing. "I'm sorry that your love is wasted on someone who can't even keep you safe. Tell Trunkaby that she's in charge." He took off his badge.

"No, Chief Bogo, you can't resign! You're the best chief of police ever!" Clawhauser said.

"No, Officer Benjamin Clawhauser, you sweet, precious angel," he said, before kissing Clawhauser on the still raw cheek, causing him to wince slightly. "I'm not."

Clawhauser burst into tears the second Bogo left the precinct. He was greeted by a concerned Hopps. Hopps asked, "What's wrong, Clawhauser? What happened to you?"

"Oh, some gang members got a little hostile with me before a field cop could subdue them. It's okay, though," he said.

"Then why are you crying?" she asked.

"The Chief… he's gone, Hopps," Clawhauser said.

"He died!?" Hopps asked in horror.

"No," Clawhauser said, "He just resigned because he wasn't there to protect me but…" His hair puffed out as his expression turned to horror, "You don't think he could die do you, Hopps?"

"Well, if I know anything about good cops resigning, and I do, he'll be back," she responded.

"If you say so," Clawhauser answered. He rested his chin in his hand and sighed worriedly.

Bogo found himself at the end of a dive bar. The bartender was a ferret. "An elephant mug of vodka," he ordered.

"Uhh, an elephant mug of _vodka_?" the bartender asked.

"You heard me!" he screamed, banging his hooves on the counter, causing the small fennec fox sitting next to him to involuntarily bounce off of his stool. "Oh, I'm sorry," he said.

"It's cool," the fennec said in an alarming bass. His voice was even deeper than Bogo's. "I haven't seen you around these parts before."

"Well, I was the chief of police," he said.

"How come you ain't anymore?" the fennec asked.

"Because I'm so incompetent I can't even prevent my own boyfriend from being assaulted at work," he said.

The fennec paused, put a single finger in the air and opened his mouth, and then put it down when he saw the impatient expression of the guy who probably weighed a thousand times as much as he did. "Ouch," he said. "You can call me Finnick. What's your name?"

"Bogo," he said, "First name not specified."

"Yeah," Finnick said, "Finnick's not my real first name but it's cooler. You need a cool nickname."

"I don't deserve a cool nickname," he said, sipping his far too big glass of booze. "Cool nicknames should be reserved for heroes. And I'm no hero. I couldn't even protect Benjamin."

"Oh," Finnick said. "Well I'm not a hero neither. I have to scam to make ends meet, and even then… I'm still stuck living in a van."

"That's simply terrible," Bogo said, nursing the drink. "If the government programs actually did what the politicians claimed they did, that wouldn't happen. Or if actual legitimate jobs could do away with taxes entirely under a certain income that would be… oh, sorry. I forgot. I don't have any political clout anymore. Now I'm just a bitter unemployed middle-aged bull talking to a very tiny fox scammer with more attitude than most of the cops I employed in a dingy dive bar."

Bogo downed the rest of his drink in one huge gulp that alarmed the bartender. Fairly soon, Bogo was completely hammered. "Time to go home," he slurred, before stumbling and almost crashing to the ground.

"Brah, you are way too drunk to drive," Finnick said, "I'll give you a ride in my van."

"No," Bogo said, swatting Finnick away, "I don't deserve any help!" He stumbled out of the building and saw that his phone had blown up with text messages. All from Benjamin Clawhauser. Each one getting more frantic. The most recent one read, "Where are you!? Please answer! I love you!"

"I'm gona go fro a drive," Bogo texted back.

At the precinct, Clawhauser was pacing frantically, screaming at his phone, "Respond! Come on you big lug, please respond! I need to know where you are!" Suddenly Clawhauser saw that Bogo had responded and frantically opened it. He read what it said. " 'I'm gona go fro a drive?' Huh, that's odd. Bogo usually notices and makes corrections when he makes typos like that unless he's… OH GOD NO!"

Clawhauser knew that Bogo drinking and driving would be a horrible tragedy waiting to happen. He cried bitterly for five minutes, horrors playing out in his head. Then he wiped a tear from his face and said with a determination he didn't even know he had, "Forty-five times. Forty-five times Bogo rescued me. It's time I start paying my dues. I can't just sit here passively hoping this will get better. He needs to be stopped. No. _I_ have to stop him." He ran out of the precinct, leaving an "out to lunch" sign on his desk.

He ran until he had to stop, which admittedly wasn't very long, but he had made quite a bit of distance in that time. Suddenly he spotted Bogo's car in the distance and decided that he'd rested long enough. Once he finally caught up, he noticed Bogo was about to drive into a barrier on a tourist sightseeing spot unless he did something. He threw all caution to the wind and leapt in front of Bogo's car. His golden spotted coat glistened in the beams of the headlights. Bogo slammed the brakes and got out of the car.

"Benjamin!" he shouted, "What the fuck? I could have killed you!"

"Or you could have died yourself," Clawhauser said.

"That wouldn't be as much of a loss for the world," he murmured.

"No," Clawhauser said. "Bogo. Chief Bogo. The love of my life and my hero. I have to do this." He pulled out his notebook.

"Clawhauser, I don't want to read right now, I'd rather just sleep," Bogo said.

"Two hundred ninety six. That's how many times you've saved one or more direct reports since my start date. Forty-five. That's how many times you've saved… me."

"Forty-five," Bogo said, "That does sound rather high."

"June 2010, you told the others they'd be fired if they didn't stop harassing me."

"Well, there's…"

"November 2015, you saved my job even though you really didn't need to."

"I can't…"

"March 2012, you jumped in front of a hysterical stampeding elephant just to protect me."

"You see…"

"October 2011, you wrestled a grizzly bear to keep him from assaulting me and knocked him out using methods that wouldn't cause permanent damage."

"Umm…"

"April 2016, you told three mammals you've never met that you didn't want to be with them simply because they wouldn't want to be with me."

"There's…"

"February 2014, you threw away my box of donuts because you heard that there'd been a contamination at the donut shop that day and knocked one of them out of my hands to prevent me from getting sick."

"I…"

"Chief Bogo," Clawhauser said, "You are a hero. You are the biggest hero Zootopia has ever known. You shouldn't throw your career and even your life away because you let me get scratched once. Especially since I know you forgive me for the same mistakes." Clawhauser started to cry. "I love you Chief. You mean everything to me. I really don't want to lose you. Not now. Not ever."

Bogo pulled Clawhauser into a hug. He kissed him gently on the cheek. "It's okay, kitten," he said. He sat down, and placed Clawhauser gently on his lap. "I'm not going anywhere." He wrapped his arms around Clawhauser tightly as Clawhauser began to purr softly.

Several police cars showed up at the scene. "Oh, thank god, they're not dead!" Hopps said. "Benjamin Clawhauser, that was crazy, reckless, and far too dangerous for someone of your fighting skill level."

"I'm…" he said, starting to apologize, before Hopps interrupted him.

"Nice one," she said, offering a fist-bump. He obliged, before they both exploded the fist-bump.

"Don't encourage him to endanger himself, Hopps," Bogo shouted. He winced and mumbled, "Ow," when he realized his splitting headache.

"Well, Chief, we're going to have to take you in for a DUI," Hopps said.

"Understood and well-deserved," he said. "Benjamin, tell Trunkaby to enjoy her tenure while she can."

"I don't think she's going to need to be told that," Clawhauser said. Officer Trunkaby had been having the time of her life leading the precinct, and Clawhauser was honestly a little worried what she would do when she discovered that the precinct wouldn't be under new management for long.

After Bogo's little snafu with the law had been cleared up and taken care of, he walked over to Clawhauser and chuckled. "I still can't believe you jumped in front of a car being driven by a hammered buffalo."

"I couldn't let you make a drunken mistake that would make the world worse in a lot of ways," Clawhauser said.

"But it would have been so much worse if I hit you," Bogo said.

"I thought it was worth the risk," Clawhauser said.

"It wasn't," Bogo said bluntly. "Never, ever, ever, try to rescue me again, especially not in a way that puts you in danger."

"Hopefully, I'll never need to," Clawhauser said. "My hero." Clawhauser rested his head on Bogo's chest.


End file.
